Gaging the Utility of Celebrity Plastic Surgery Influence

Summary: Gossip is a popular pastime. And, to be fair, much discussion of celebrities, including discussion of their personal lives and such, falls squarely in the realm of gossip. But what about discussion of celebrity plastic surgery procedures? Is there any place in the world for that, or is it, essentially, just gossip? Whatever the answer, we try to find the utility in such conversations. After all, celebrities are role models and we use them to discuss our own body images quite often.

Celebrity Body Image

It’s hard to go a day without reading about one celebrity or another who has undergone plastic surgery. And, of course, there are the celebrities—actresses, reality television stars, and so on—who get plastic surgery repeatedly. In a way, this begs the question: why do they get plastic surgery at all? This is an interesting question. Ostensibly, celebrities get plastic surgery for the same reason the rest of us do: they are under an intense amount of pressure to look great. In other words, they want to look good, and they want to look good no matter what. But celebrities are also role models.

This means that not only are they under a considerable amount of pressure to look good, they’ll also under a good amount of pressure to look better than others—to give others something to strive for. Of course, sometimes this isn’t a good thing. We just need to look at the ridiculous amount of photoshopping that’s been done to celebrity’s magazine covers to understand just how unrealistic our expectations generally are. Photoshopping can make celebrities look younger, thinner, and exaggerate their proportions. This puts even more intense pressure on celebrities, who are expected to look that way in public.

Plastic Surgery and Celebrities

Of course, I think the other reason we like to know about celebrity plastic surgery is because it’s hard to feel sorry for them. We look at them as rich, happy, content—not wanting for anything. Of course, they’re still people. And they have insecurities. They want to change themselves. And, in some ways, it’s a good thing. Because they provide us with the opportunity to mold ourselves as well. Indeed, most plastic surgeons will attest to the fact that many patients come into a clinic setting already having a good idea of what they want to look like.

This doesn’t necessarily mean a total transformation. Rather, just the opposite. According to much research that’s been done, most people feel quite comfortable with the majority of their features. Patients who seek out plastic surgery tend to be focused on one feature or another that they don’t really feel measures up. For example, a patient might be focused on the nose, or on the breasts, but likely not on the entirety of their body. It’s true that there are some (very few) plastic surgery patients who want to change their entirety, but this is relatively rare.

Celebrity Plastic Surgery Influence

What happens more often is that a patient will request to have a celebrity’s defining feature: Olivia Munn’s eyebrows, Angelina Jolie’s lips, Beyonce’s backside, and so on. I’ve mentioned before that I tend to think of this as giving the patients a kind of shorthand. Rather than explicitly describing the type of lips a patient wants, it’s simply easier for the patient to say: I want Angelina Jolie’s lips. And it tends to be pretty accurate, it gives the plastic surgeon a great idea of the patient’s vision for the final desired results, increasing the accuracy of all procedures.

Be Influenced, But Not Overruled

What we’re really saying, I suppose, is that all of the work that’s done discussing celebrities and their plastic surgeries is not work that is in vain. It’s not completely pointless gossip. Rather, it’s a mechanism through which we can talk about hour own hopes, our own desires, the way we want to look and so on. In this way, it’s exceptionally useful, and celebrities continue to give us not only inspiration, but also a constructive way to talk about plastic surgery in general. That’s no small favor. And yet, we should also acknowledge that this might add to a certain sense of pressure that many people feel: plastic surgery allows you to look good beyond what nature might normally provide. There might be the sense that you have more control over your body than you really do.

At the end of the day, plastic surgery is about feeling good. And there are plenty of ways to achieve that. Whether you’re looking for a breast augmentation in Milwaukee or a Botox injection in Florida, there are ways for you to get the look you want and to feel good when it’s all said and done. And that’s what it’s really about. Yes, cosmetic surgery is designed to improve the way you look—but it really has more to do with how you feel about yourself. Whether you’re a celebrity or not, that sense of self-confidence and self-esteem can be priceless, no matter how you get it. So if you’re interested in plastic surgery, be sure to talk to your plastic surgeon today.